Corrected tabulating error flips county commission seat back to the incumbent

A corrected error in Rochester Hills now means that Oakland County Commissioner Adam Kochenderfer, a Rochester Hills Republican, will keep his seat after all.

Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown announced Thursday that numbers for seven Rochester Hills precincts were sent as duplicates by Rochester Hills, with one set labeled as absentee ballots. Brown said the ballots in question were duplicates and actually absentee ballots.

Correcting the error means that instead of losing by 104 votes to Democrat Melanie Hartman, Kochenderfer actually won by 1,127.

“The past 36 hours have certainly been a whirlwind,” Kochenderfer said. “I’d like to thank the officials who caught the error and corrected the vote tabulation.”

Democrats currently hold a one- seat edge on the 21-seat county commission, and Kochenderfer’s loss would have meant an expanded Democrat majority.

County election workers are currently canvassing the results of Tuesday’s election so that they can be officially certified.

“This is proof that our process of checks and balances works,” said Brown, the county clerk. AA methodical canvass is an essential tool to ensure an accurate count and precise results.”

A statement was also released by the Rochester Hills mayor’s office on behalf of city Clerk Tina Barton.

“There was a technical glitch when a file was saved and sent to the County. We discovered this around 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. We notified the County immediately and asked that the website be corrected. All votes were counted fairly and accurately and are reflected in the current vote total.”